Eli Lilly will invest €2.6 billion in a next-generation production facility at Leiden Bio Science Park, in a move to bring manufacturing closer to patients and strengthen its European footprint. The automated plant will produce oral solid medicines for both domestic and global markets, said Marco Frenken, Lilly’s Netherlands country manager.
The investment is part of a global push to modernise supply chains, binding the US pharma group into one of Europe’s most dynamic life sciences clusters.
Leiden Mayor Peter Heijkoop told Euractiv the science park offers a vibrant environment that fosters knowledge, creativity, and progress. “This makes it an attractive location for both start-ups and companies looking to deepen or expand their activities. Lilly is now joining this ecosystem, and we are particularly pleased about that,” said Heijkoop.
Euractiv spoke with Marco Frenken about why the company picked the Netherlands to be the home of its new production facility and what it hopes to accomplish once it’s up and running.
CS: Lilly just announced a €2.6 billion investment in a production facility in the Netherlands. What do your plans entail?
MF: To take one step back, Lilly is a medicines company that’s been on the planet for around 150 years. We’ve been pretty successful, and the demand for our products has increased significantly over time. We realised that expanding our manufacturing capacity has been very important to the success of our innovative medicines.
In Europe, Lilly is building a new site in Ireland and another in Germany, and it has now announced its newest site in the Netherlands. In short, we’ll be producing pills.
This investment will create 500 jobs once the facility is up and running. We expect we’ll also need roughly 1,500 people to build it. Then we’ll be making oral medicines from our future portfolio. So that will be in the space of cardiometabolic health, which includes cardiovascular disease, but also diabetes and obesity. It could also involve oncology, immunology, and neuroscience.
CS: Will Lilly’s production of these drugs be restricted to the Netherlands?
MF: There will be multiple sites across the globe that will also be producing the drugs in this portfolio. It’s part of our strategy to be able to quickly adapt to market demands and quickly shift and adjust our supply chain. So there will be multiple comparable locations to that in the Netherlands that will be able to scale up in case we need it.
CS: So, which markets will you be exporting to?
This production site will produce drugs for the Netherlands, Europe, and the rest of the world as well. Again, that will depend on our needs. But the intent is to produce for the entire world, when and wherever we may need it.
CS: In September, President Trump announced tariffs on pharma products, with an exemption for companies constructing sites in the US. Do such measures threaten your plans in the Netherlands?
MF: We’re not a fan of tariffs. As much as we understand what President Trump is trying to do, we think it’s a bad idea to put tariffs on pharmaceuticals. They’ve always been exempt from tariffs. They only add costs for both sides: the government and the patients. So we need to make sure that these tariffs are taken off the table. We’d rather invest in working with the US government to lower the impact on patients rather than increasing it.
On a related note, Lilly has been investing $55 billion since 2020, with the majority of that investment relating to facilities that will be located within the United States. We recently announced investments in manufacturing sites in the US, a new site in Texas, another one in Virginia, and we’re expanding our site in Puerto Rico.
CS: We’re now living in the age of AI, and you’ve just announced you’ll be creating 500 jobs. What will these people be doing? What skills are you hiring for?
MF: Don’t think of this as a traditional production facility in a traditional production site; this will be an automated process from A to Z. So, artificial intelligence, as you mentioned, is a really critical tool for us to be an efficient producer of medicines. So the people who will be working in this facility will be technical engineers who will be supporting this whole process, understanding that process, and using tools like AI to make the process more efficient with a lower impact on the environment. That will be the task of these people; it won’t be traditional manufacturing jobs for sure.
CS: So why the Netherlands, since automated processes could be implemented anywhere?
MF: The Netherlands is a highly developed country in terms of life sciences and health. There’s a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience, and talent already available. So this facility will be part of the Leiden Bio Science Park. It’s closely linked and related to the University of Leiden, but also the Technical University of Delft.
The Netherlands isn’t a huge country, so connections across the country, in terms of connecting with knowledge institutions, are a very important element of why Lilly chose the Netherlands.
And another element is logistics. We will be developing medicines, not just for the Netherlands, and not just for Europe, but for the rest of the world. So being able to have a fast distribution network is going to be important.
And last but not least, we still need to work through a whole range of permits before we can actually start building this facility. The rules for Lilly are the same as for everyone else, so we need to work through a whole set of regulations. Local and national officials were pulling together and creating a team that was really needed to drive this process as quickly as possible. And that really helped us choose the Netherlands.
This investment has a significant impact on the Dutch economy. According to the Boston Consulting Group, such investments typically generate a fivefold return. I think the Netherlands is extremely happy and satisfied with this investment.
Today, we’re doing this to improve patients’ lives. That means we also expect the Netherlands not just to embrace the investment, but also to embrace innovation, protecting innovation, and ensuring patients have quick access to these types of medicines.
CS: Will your Dutch investment have any R&D aspects to it, or is this strictly about a manufacturing plant?
MF: R&D is very different from manufacturing. So this investment is purely focused on the manufacturing facilities. But Lilly has been exploring and expanding its R&D capacity across the globe. This could be part of this whole facility sometime in the future, but that’s not the case at this moment.
CS: What would need to change to make more R&D happen in the Netherlands?
MF: A while ago, the majority of pharma product innovation happened in Europe. Now it’s only 10%. The rest comes from the US or China.
If we look at the Netherlands today, it’s a late-access country. It’s very wealthy, but its budget for innovative medicines is among the lowest in Europe. So, in terms of granting access to innovation and investing in it, the Netherlands and Europe are lagging behind. We need European policies that protect innovation.
Secondly, running clinical trials here and in Europe is becoming increasingly more challenging. We need that to improve.
Lastly, we need Europe to use and embrace this innovation, and to make it available to patients as quickly as possible. There’s a lot to be done, and there’s no time to waste.
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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